Integrating consortium blockchain into edge server to defense against ransomware attack

Abstract

An edge server acts as a data gateway in an IoT network between IoT devices and backend servers. If the edge server is under the ransomware attack, the server’s operation would be interfered by locking its critical files, leading to a single point of failure in the IoT network. This paper proposes a blockchain solution, called Blockchain-enabled Recovery Service (BRS), to tackle the malware injection attack in edge servers. In BRS, edge servers are implemented by nodes in a blockchain network which allows IoT data distributed in edge servers over multiple data connections. It ensures data availability and consistency while improving the network throughput. A simulation test has been conducted to evaluate the performance of edge servers in the blockchain network. The result showed that the size of data record in a ledger is crucial when maximizing the efficiency of a ledger and minimizing data loss in ransomware attack are considered. Moreover, even though the blockchain network is under the attack, data availability and data recovery can be achieved.